How Bulls are benefitting from Markkanen's aggressive approach originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
As usual, Garrett Temple cut right to the heart of the matter.
The well-traveled veteran admitted he had an opinion of Lauri Markkanen from playing against him, one he's glad that Markkanen has changed now that they're teammates.
"Just his offensive mentality, not just being a standstill, catch-and-shoot, 3-point guy and occasionally a driver. He’s really been aggressive offensively," Temple said. "And we need him to continue to do that for this team."
Markkanen scored a season-high 29 points while posting his first double-double of the season in the Bulls' 117-101 victory over the Mavericks Sunday afternoon. Beyond his 10 rebounds, he notched three assists and attempted a season-high eight free throws, making seven.
More impressive is the fact Markkanen began the game with a turnover and three not-close misses from 3-point range before starting to attack.
"They were flying at him so hard in the first half and some of the shots looked like they started open, but they got to him in terms of contesting," head coach Billy Donovan said. "I just mentioned to him: With the way they're flying at you, there's going to be drives open all over the place. I give him a lot of credit, any time they had space and they flew at him, he put the ball on the floor, made some good passes, got some guys some shots and obviously scored going to the basket."
Don't look now, but in this prove-it season for Markkanen, he has three 20-point games in the six he has played. And he's averaging 4.8 free-throw attempts per game. While that's not, say, James Harden territory, it's well above his career average of 3.1 per game.
"I love the fact that he’s been so aggressive. That’s been surprising to me," Temple said. "Playing against him in the past, I haven’t seen as many duck-ins, as many drives to the basket. He’s been really aggressive on the offensive boards as well."
Another encouraging sign for Markkanen and the Bulls is that he has regained the momentum he created by his strong start to the season despite missing over two weeks to the league's health and safety protocol after close contact with COVID-19 positive teammates. Markkanen didn't play as well in Oklahoma City in his first game back, but admitted he's still trying to find his rhythm after the long layoff.
"It felt like I was a little short on my shots and I just tried to get my legs back. Conditioning-wise I felt pretty good," Markkanen said. "There was a stretch in the third, it felt like it was 20 seconds and I was gassed. Other than that little stretch, I was pretty good."
One of the signature moments from Markkanen's rookie season came in his Madison Square Garden debut when he dunked on Enes Kanter during a high-profile matchup against Kristaps Porziņģis and the Knicks. Markkanen outplayed Porziņģis again.
"Obviously it’s fun to compete. He’s one of the better power forwards we have, and obviously I’m happy he’s back on the floor and I got to compete against him," Markkanen said. "He's a good dude. It’s always fun.’’
So is the way Markkanen is playing for the Bulls.
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